{Boo} LPS release (& DIY grungey text Halloween paper)

More Halloweeniness! What's your favourite thing about Halloween? I love the sense of playfulness and that "anything goes" feeling--seems to translate into cardmaking as well. You can just distress everything so no worries about so-called "mistakes."

This is for the LPS Challenge to make a Halloween card. Doesn't get any easier than that! Hope you can join us LPS peeps to make your own card! :o)=

1...the new & nifty LPS set {Boo}
2...your 2 chances to win it! (LPS Halloween card challenge)
3...make your own grunge text papers
4...schtuff done to make this card

-1-


This cute pumpkin (and the corner spider web) are just a couple of stamps from the new set called {Boo} Coming Tuesday to the Little Paper Shop.

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(a.k.a. win this new set!)

{Boo} and LPSC33 Challenge to create a Halloween card.

2 ways to win {Boo}:
(more details on the LPS blog here)

1) Leave a comment on the LPS blog HERE (One random winner)
2) Play along with the challenge to make a Halloween card

-3-

...DIY grunge text papers



I love text papers, but I'm broke & I don't drive, so I can't just go out & buy up all kinds of text papers...(plus I adore having customized one of a kind text.) Here's one way to make your own grunge text patterned paper--on a budget & in a hurry.

• cardstock (any neutral you like)
• printer & computer (black & white ink prints more affordably) :o)
  
• grunge or texture, text file, & ledger image (or just use the 2 files here-if you like 'em)

the ledger just happens to say "October" (eerie fluke!)

This grey text paper was made (digitally) this way / with these layers:

1) Create a new photoshop file (8.5 x 11 inches for a full sheet) & fill it with pure black

2) Layer over that black file with texture: You could one of the 10 free high resolution grunge textures created by Amber (I used one as a photoshop brush in black & white at 100% opacity & flow) OR any grunge paper/texture you like & any settings you prefer...

3) Add white/coloured text: (I pasted this text in a text box in photoshop-using Edgar Allen Poe's The Black Cat typed in MSword in Underwood Champion (a free font from dafont) & then pasted from the word document into the photoshop text box.)

...and it was printed this way (for depth):

1) Print a sheet of four ledger papers (I used MS microsoft picture manager)
2) Print the grey text paper over it

Here's a great tutorial describing how to make Halloween grunge paper by saltyfrog

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...make this card
(click the photos for close ups)

• {Boo} from LPS: spider web & pumpkin stamp
• makingmemories 12x12 Toil Mocha Paperie (Item# 31001)
• Black ink, clear embossing powder, & heat gun
• White acrylic paint
• Any text/background stamp
• Exacto blade
• Paper piercer, black thread, & needle
• ZigPainty pen (gold end)
• Ribbon (vintage silk)
• Scor-pal (or another scoring tool)
• Strong adhesive (I used Scor-tape & Tombow)
  
• Scissors & paper cutter
• Mod podge & vintage book page
• Nestabilites Label die
  

-A-

...for the pumpkin & details



Hopefully this pic lets you see the distressed texture on the pumpkin.
Please click it if you'd like a closer view.

Step 1} Stamp pumpkin, emboss it & cutting it out (this is on book paper glued to cardstock with Mod Podge-for more details on that please see today's other post9already posted.) :-)

To distress the pumpkin, I scratched it up & coloured it with Copic markers (brown & grey) and pulled up some of the Copic with a colourless blender. The colour stays in the cracks & scratches.

Step 2} Make a curly pumpkin vine (with two tendrils) by wrapping gold wire around pliers

Step 3} Ahdere the wire tendrils with two pieces of super strong double sided tape (or attach it using your favourite method.)

Step 4} Cut a little pumpkin leaf, colour it with the gold end of a ZigPainty metallic pen & shape it. (I just shaped this leaf using scissors on a piece of fun foam.)

Here's the finished leaf & tendrils:

-B-

...for the textured frame
(painted embossing)



If You like making your own textures, then this might be fun for ya. It's super simple: just emboss black in in clear, paint over it, stamp in it, clean the stamp, & sand the embossing. Don't you love the way stamps can impress letters & backgrounds into paints and other goopy things?

Step 1} Make a mat by cutting it with Nestabilities Label die. Stamp & emboss spiderwebs in the corners of it. (Since it's acrylic you could stamp this neatly, but I went the crazy & crooked route for a Halloweenesque look.)



Step 2} Paint over embossed spider webs (with white acrylic paint) and texturize the paint by pressing any text stamp into the wet paint.

Please note(!): cleaning the stamp as soon as possible is very important when working with acrylic paints. In fact, the white you see in the photo on that rubber stamp is not even paint. The paint is actually replaced with white pigment ink. I applied the ink after I scrubbed off the white paint...in order to photograph a realistic example....(so You could see the look of it, without the paint drying on my stamp.)



Step 3} Sand the embossing to reveal more of the black colour & get some distressed texture.



Step 4} Make the mat into a frame & embellish it...

A) Make the mat into a frame by cutting away the funky shape made in the center from the repeated spider web stamp (with an exacto blade).

B) Embellish the frame by piercing then stitching & filling in between the stitches with the gold end of a ZigPainty pen.

and that's it...

Here's hoping that your Halloween crafting is a blast!

P.S. Please scroll down or click here if you'd like to see today's other post (digital découpage with myGraphico) embossing:o)